Los Angeles County / Public Defender / Public Defender
Job-title file
Carry out the duties of this position in support of the agency's public mission.
1 employees hold this title in Public Defender. Median total compensation for the role is $714,318, above the department median of $178,093.
Compared with the local labor market
Across all employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, the median wage for Lawyers — about 41,580 people — is $194,410. Public Defender pays a median base salary of $466,489 for this role, 140% above that figure — above the 90th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
The bar is the range of annual wages for Lawyers across every employer in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Public Defender’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Lawyers — about 754,500 people — is $159,670. Public Defender’s median base salary is 192% above that national figure, above the 90th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Public Defender is $714,318, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare jurisdictions
This role is reported in 3 jurisdictions. See Public Defender across all of Los Angeles County →
Median total compensation for comparable Public Defender roles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.
Record list
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Public Defender/Public Defender
Ricardo Garcia holds the role of Public Defender at Public Defender. In 2025, their total compensation was $714,318.